Colombian legislative efforts on gender and sexual education

In Colombia, President Abelardo De La Espriella has called for new legislation to address legal gaps regarding hormonal treatments for minors, citing the need to protect children’s rights against current interpretations of progressive autonomy.

This push has coincided with multiple legislative efforts in Congress. One multi-party initiative, ‘Ley Laura: Niños, no experimento’, seeks to prohibit puberty blockers, gender-affirming hormonal treatments, and gender-modifying surgeries for children and adolescents, proposing that medical professionals performing such procedures commit serious ethics violations.

Concurrently, Representative David Cote introduced a bill titled ‘He is he and she is she’ (Proyecto 367/2026C). This proposal aims to reform sexual education from preschool through secondary school by basing curricula on biological, medical, and neuropsychological foundations. The bill seeks to exclude methodologies that disregard biological sex or promote diverse gender identities, while increasing parental oversight of curricular content. It also incorporates public health information regarding STIs, teenage pregnancy, sexual violence, induced abortion, and the implications of gender-affirming medical treatments.

As the bill moves through Congress, it has sparked debate regarding the use of a ‘biological approach’ and ‘verifiable scientific criteria’ in school guidelines. The initiative, supported by seven congress members, follows criticisms from former Minister of Education Viviane Morales, who advocated for a review of educational materials to reduce ‘ideologization’ and increase parental involvement in monitoring school content after describing certain comprehensive sexual education programs as a ‘woke campaign’.